Experts Reel Benefits of 5G, NCS Says Technology Will Improve Health

ACROSS section of public health and telecommunication experts have identified various ways the fifth generation (0therwise 5G) of network technology is helping many countries to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

This came as Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), said that 5G networks did not have energy to liberate electrons and cause damage to human tissues.

The experts, who spoke at the virtual meeting of Nigerian institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (NIEEE) 5G health symposium, noted that the benefits of 5G technology far outweighed its perceived health implications.

Uwazie Kingsley, technical director, Huawei Technical Support Centre in Nigeria, disagreed that the technology could cause COVID-19 pandemic.

Kingsley, explained that the 5G network had been deployed commercially in over 30 countries as of April 6, 2020, whereas the COVID-19 confirmed cases had been established in more than 200 countries around the world.

However, he said the network had enabled and improved certain medical activities aimed at diagnosing, treating and controlling the pandemic.

He said, “During the epidemic, 5G enabled a large number of applications such as remote medicine, remote prevention and control, and remote diagnosis and treatment, and improved medical efficiency with technology.

According to him, 5G remote diagnoses improve the efficiency of medical personnel; remote treatment by remote experts helps to improve medical efficiency; and 5G mobile trolleys, which is the most popular 5G application, reduce the number of contacts by medical staff to reduce the risk of infection.

Also, , Dr Abayomi Afe, a public health physician, explained the 5G was a type of non-ionising radiations such as 2G, 3G, 3G and 4G and did not have sufficient energy to break molecular bonds.

According to him, the most common man-made sources of nonionised radiations are electricity, telecommunications, radio and TV broadcasting antennas.

He noted that there was a standard radiation emission limit that had been set by the International Commission for Non-ionising Radiation Protection below which the radiation was considered safe for humans.